Crushing on You
by LaidEffect
Summary: (Modern AU) Mischievous student Harrison Haddock, known to many as Hiccup, and Honour student Astrid Hofferson have been classmates since elementary but never got along. However, after he pulled off a stunt, he gets seated in front of Astrid. Eventually, both get less annoyed with each other, and Hiccup realizes he may have developed a crush on her. Rated M for strong language
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

The sunlight shone into the room through the windows, welcoming itself by illuminating the place in a mixture of cool and warm ambience thanks to the turquoise and yellow curtains draped over them. A long-sleeved henley hung over the wooden cupboard, its back facing outwards to allow droplets of blue ink stained the top right corner at the back be visible to whoever that places their sight on the light-green garment.

A tall, lean figure stared at the shirt for a second, the end of his lips curling up a little as he started locking the cuffs on the end of the white long sleeve button up with his calloused fingers.

The black desk chair creaked when it supported the figure's weight as he seated himself comfortably on it, turning himself around to grab the yellow lint-free cloth draped over the backrest before bending over to face his brown leather shoes. Soft sound of scrubbing echoed slightly throughout the room as micro-fibre meets leather, resulting in the latter shining a dim glow and highlighting the craftsmanship and style that makes the footwear stand out on its own.

Having made sure every part of the shoe was well polished, the lean figure stood up and walked over towards the standing mirror to straighten his black tie knotted into a half Windsor. Satisfied, forest-green eyes trailed from top to bottom to have a good look at reflection of the overall figure standing in front of the mirror. Long hair in the shade of auburn was given a messy outlook with the support of hair spray. Freckles scattered across the plump rounded cheeks glimmered under the sunlight, while stubble peppered the sharp jaw line and pointy chin that made up the lower part of the face.

Looking down on his own reflection, the long sleeve shirt wraps itself around the torso, further showing off the V-shaped upper body created by straight broad shoulders and a slim waist. Lean arm muscles could be seen from the slightly tight wrapping the sleeves gave the wearer. Black leather belt locked with a shiny metal buckle the shape of a buckle kept the navy pants from falling, while giving a comfortable feel without being too tight.

A not-so-visible lopsided smile formed across the lips as the figure turned his head to the left to look at the red apple placed just over the notebook on his messy writing desk. The sound of footsteps outside his room caught his attention and he turned around again to face the door and the lop-sided smile grew wider.

Two other figures, one short and another bulky had appeared near the door and were watching the lean man. The short figure, his jet-black hair gelled into a pompadour, let out a huff before calling out.

"Oh for the love of… Can't you be any quicker? It's the big day today! Do you seriously wanna keep the bride waiting?"


	2. Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction

_Hiccup_

The wind breezed pass me as I walked down the black tar road, as 'Come As You Are' blasted in my earphones. Berkian cold tickled my skin, making the hair on my skinny body stand up to keep internal temperature regulated. The lack of clouds in the sky had the sun shining down onto the horizon unobstructed had forced me to narrow my eyes into a squint but it did not take away the small smile that my lips had formed. Any place in the Archi rarely has clear days in a year, especially when the summer had just ended.

2003\. That year Beyoncé released her debut album. That coin-named rapper from America released an album that topped Billboard 200, and England was frenzying over some young Portuguese player becoming Manchester United's No. 7; Berserk City Furies had just secured their fifth Archi Rugby Championship title right before summer

I felt my smile drop a little. Summer of 2003 just ended. My eyes refocused on the road ahead and my brain recalled I was heading back to Berk High. The white building was just visible and about another minute walk, but the sight of a big silhouette caught my attention.

_Is that Fishlegs? _

Cycling closer to the husky figure whose back was facing me, the small and short legs hinted to me it was indeed Francis 'Fishlegs' Inger dozing off walking his way to school. Everyone has a fat guy in a story, and Fishlegs is our fat guy in this story.

Veering the bicycle closer to the big soft blonde, I stretched my right arm out just as I passed him, pushing the sleepy figure onto the red car just beside him.

"Argh! For real Hiccup? Not cool at all!"

Oh right, where are my manners? My name's Harrison Haddock. Everyone calls me Hiccup. Don't know why. Don't care. Never did. Never will. It's probably because some idiot said I looked like that scrawny Viking Chief – Hiccup Horrible Haddock the Third? Or is it Hilarious? Who cares? – and I'm part of the royal line.

A loud laugh escaped my throat as I unplugged the left side of my earphones, turning it around to see Fishlegs trying to stop the car sirens from blaring continuously. But knowing the gentle nerd giant, he probably would suffer a panic attack or get into trouble before he achieves anything. My ears caught heard of a chuckle and I turned my head to see a guy of Sami descent with black hair tied to a ponytail.

"You lot sure know how to cause trouble, don't you now?"

"Save it, Eretson." A playful scowl had formed around my face. I noticed Fishlegs trying to calm himself at the corner of my eyes.

"Yeah," Fishlegs started protesting, "Blame this oversized mop of messy hair for fuck's sakes."

Ignoring Fishlegs, I did a quick look at Eret from top to bottom immediately focusing my eyes on a hot dog in his right hand, and my reflexes kicked in.

"Hey!" Eret's eyes open wide in shock. "That's my Thor-damned breakfast!"

I pretended like he wasn't around, and started inspecting the hotdog. "Too short." I turned to face him as I grabbed a bite. "You sure you didn't castrate yourself?"

"Real fucking funny, Haddock." The muscular guy rolled his eyes before nodding his head in the school's direction. "Let's get going, shall we?"

We nodded, and then made our way to the long-dreaded white building. It wasn't long before we heard the voices of students. One really annoyed and angry voice stood out.

"When did yer mother last feed you? Get going now! Bell's about to ring!"

"Bloody Helheim! Is that a boner?"

"Haddock! Yer better get that oversized mop cut soon!"

I let out a huff. Savage the Prefect (questionable with his language) always picked on the students he deemed that brought him trouble. And apparently, I'm always on his to-pick-on list.

"Seriously, Hiccup," Fishlegs began. "You gotta stop doing that."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Do what?"

"Snatching food and shoving us. In the bloody morning. We're in Form 5 now."

"So?"

"That means we're sixteen."

"So?"

Before Fishlegs could come up with a reply, my head registered a sudden shock at the back of my head, and I let out a soft "Ow!". The three of us turned to see a rather short but stout guy smirking at us.

"Still couldn't catch a ball now eh cuz?"

"Motherf-" I uttered out before recognizing the "cuz" and the short stuff standing in front of us, and I swore Fishlegs was smirking at me getting a taste of my own medicine. "Scrote-lout. It's fucking 7 a.m. and you're already being a jackass."

Scrote-lout, or more commonly known as Sebastian 'Snotlout' Jorgenson, is my cousin – Thor save my pure soul – and part of our group of friends. His smug didn't wipe off, instead it grew wider.

"Ya know?" He said as his left hand fished into his pocket while making his way to us. "I got myself a Rare 'Hookfang' card from the Dragons Pack yesterday."

A yellow card with the picture of a red dragon and long neck with curvy black horns was shoved into my face, and I quickly grabbed it to have a proper look. The words RARE and HOOKFANG were in bold green letters.

"Show off," I muttered under my breath. Snot wrapped his right arm around my shoulder

"You could always trade 'Toothless' for 'Hookfang'. You know I've always wanted a Legendary card."

"No way."

"Oh? Piss off then." He said as he grabbed his card away from me.

We walked to class, located a good 2 floors up while discussing topics from summer holidays to Eret's bad choice of breakfast. When we reached our classroom, Snotlout opened the door only to be greeted by a bucket landing on his head.

"Loki'd!" two students, twins, walked out cheering happily at getting a victim from their pranks.

"Ruff? Tuff? I thought you blasted yourselves." nonchalance laced my voice. Everyone in class got used to the twins – Rachel 'Ruffnut' and Terrence 'Tuffnut' Thorston – pranking people, even teachers. It's a miracle they never got kicked out.

"Ahem."

The six of us turned around to see a girl in gold hair tied to a ponytail standing behind us, a less-than-pleased look on her face. She wore a blue hoodie and black jeans, a red bag slung over her right shoulder. My face turned into a scowl the moment I recognized her.

"ASTRID! BABE!" Snotlout broke the silence, the bucket still on his head. "Miss me?"

He received punched in both his face and the bucket as a reply. Astrid just walked past him as he landed on his butt yelping 'MOMMY!', giving Ruffnut a slight nod and ignoring the rest of us.

"Hey, Ruff."

Astrid Hofferson. Top in class. Honour student. Taekwondo expert. Blah blah blah. Did I mention Snotlout and Eret son of Eret has a thing for her? No? They do. There I said it. I swear I don't get what Snotlout and Eret see in her.

Rolling my eyes in disgust, I walked over to a seat at the back of the class with Tuffnut and Snotlout, while the teacher and other students entered the room. Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Eret had probably sat in the middle of the class. Fishlegs and Eret want to listen to the class. Ruff sits with Astrid, they're buddies. Always have been.

You see. That's the problem. Class is so boring for Snot, Tuff and I. I don't even understand how does one pay attention to boring classes like Chemistry, History, Maths, ENGLISH. Why do we need a written exam about English? I'll never understand the education system here. Anyway, to prevent ourselves from dying off boredom on the first day at school, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.

* * *

Next time on Crushing on You: _"I've handled many students, never have I met sick students like you. Perverts."_

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys. Yea so in this chap Hiccup rants a lot. I'm trying to have him acting like a 16-years-old with a terrible attitude, and that's how's my friends and I acted when we were that age. So bear with me for now, please. The gang curses a lot too, but the cursing and rants may stop eventually. These guys will be OOC cause it's a modern AU **

**Also, I'm shifting between Hiccup's POV and a Normal Third Person POV. It'll be mentioned at the starting of each chapter. there may be POV shifts in the chapters themselves, but you'll be informed too. (Hiccup for Hiccup's POV and 3rd for Third Person POV). **

**Don't forget to R&R :)**

**\- LaidEffect**


	3. Chapter 2: Caught Red-Handed

Chapter 2: Caught Red-Handed

_Normal_

"Psst, Hiccup," Tuffnut whispered threw an eraser at the auburn haired male but didn't get a response. Hiccup had a pen cover stuck up his left nostril, and he was clearly dozing off. _Damn, just how thick is his fucking hair?_

Snotlout let out a huff and whisper shouted as he released a rubber band at his cousin's right arm, who was sitting two tables to his left. "Oy! Hiccup! Useless!"

"Yow!" Hiccup yelped, albeit softly as he tried not disturb the ongoing class. Maths. He turned to glare at Snotlout, his hand rubbing his arm. "What is wrong with you?!"

Snotlout purposely ignored Hiccup's irritated tone. "Did you bring it?"

"Bring what it?"

"You're fucking with us, right?" Tuffnut's eyebrows dropped and knitted together as he stared at the scrawny student sitting on his left, before turning to his right to look at Snotlout. "He is fucking with us right?"

Hiccup was lost at the 'conversation' he was involved in. "Who on fucking Midgard wants to _fuck_ the _both_ of you? Don't answer that, Snot."

Snotlout closed his mouth in frustration after being cut off by his cousin. Tuffnut chuckled. "Yea, it's a retalkrical question."

"You mean 'rhetorical'?" Hiccup chimed in.

"Sure, to-may-to; to-mah-to."

A shush from an irritated student sitting just in front of Snotlout had both Hiccup and Tuffnut trying to contain their laughter as the stocky boy glared back at the raven haired girl while whispering softly but loud enough for her to hear. "Shut it, Heather." That earned a glare from the girl, which Snotlout replied with his own version of glaring.

After two minutes of Haddock and Thorston chuckling at Snotlout's facial expression – his eyes were wide open and his mouth was curved downwards – Hiccup regained his composure and turned back to Snotlout. "Snotty, just what the fuck did you mean by 'bring it'?"

Snotlout turned to face Hiccup, and to answer the question, the stocky student fished out a magazine from his sling purple bag, and showed it to both Hiccup to Tuffnut while keeping it below the table so no one else could see the cover of the magazine. Tuffnut did the exact same thing. There were smug looks on both their faces. Hiccup's eyes widened in realization of what his two friends had brought. He had another quick glance at the teacher in front, Ms Mala Queen, whose back was facing the class as she jotted some formulas related to algebra on the whiteboard, then turned back to his two friends, keeping his voice low.

"You two are fuckin' bonkers."

Tuffnut's face gleamed with pride. "That's why we're friends."

Making sure their tables covered the magazines in their hands, both Snotlout and Tuffnut started opening the magazine, quietly oh-ing at the contents of the magazine and occasionally flipping it for Hiccup to see, whose own eyes widened in reaction to seeing the contents.

Having had enough of seeing his two friends enjoying themselves, Hiccup got off his seat and snatched the magazine from Tuffnut, which caught the skinny blonde by surprise.

"Hey! That's mine!"

"Mr Thorston?"

Unknown to Tuffnut, he had exclaimed loudly at Hiccup and that grabbed the attention from both the students and Ms Queen. He turned his head to look at the teacher, who had raised an eyebrow while looking at him. Both Hiccup and Snotlout had bent over, leaning on the table as they tried to contain their laughter.

"Mr Haddock, Mr Jorgenson, what is the matter that is so comical? Care to share with the class?"

_Ah, Shitzu_. Both mentioned males immediately stopped laughing.

Ms Queen had her attention back on Tuffnut, her eyes narrowed, looking as if she was zeroing on the back of his head. The skinny blonde gulped and smiled sheepishly.

"Mr Thorston, what did you mean by 'that's yours'?"

"Err…"

"Did Mr Haddock take something that belongs to you?"

"Err…"

"What is 'that' that is so important to you that you had to disrupt the class?"

Seeing that her skinny blonde student sitting at the back wouldn't give her an answer, she switched her focus to the auburn haired student who was silently sitting at the left corner of the back of the class.

"Mr Haddock, what is the item that Tuffnut insists is his?"

She watched as the youth in green Henley opened his mouth slightly only to close it back again, his lips locking shut and flattened. About 30 long silent seconds later, Ms Queen made her way towards Hiccup's seat, his eyes widening in shock and mouth opening into an 'O' as she nears his table.

Reaching Hiccup's desk, she noticed the corner of a magazine protruding out of the drawer of his table. Bending over slowly but elegantly, her eyes caught sight of Hiccup realizing that she too noticed the hidden object and tried to push it in, only for her to grab it at swift pace as she fished it out of its hiding spot. Hiccup tried protesting, but only inaudible and unintelligible noises squeaked out of his throat.

Studying the cover attentively, Ms Queen's green eyes widen in shock as she realized the genre of the magazine.

oOo

"Bringing adult magazines into school, so much so as reading them in class?"

The low, gruff tone did not conceal the anger boiling inside Alvin Treach, principal of Berk High. Pacing back and forth just outside the classroom, his legs came to a halt and he turned around to examine both the boys standing in front of him. One pair of eyes showed embarrassment, another showed no signs of it. Blue eyes looked around at any spot except the big burly figure, while forest green ones were locked in a death glare.

Adjusting his glasses after letting out a sigh, Alvin's voice boomed throughout the school compound, clear for everyone in the vicinity to hear him.

"I've handled many students, but ne'er have Ah met sick students like ye. Perverts."

Green eyes rolled in exasperation as a nasally voice spoke up. "Seriously, Al, it's not like we jerked off –"

Immediately, big rough hands met messy auburn hair as Alvin smacked the student who made the retort. "Still makin' retorts, Haddock?" This time he had lowered his voice to prevent bringing anymore embarrassment to his students.

The blonde standing next to Haddock began to open his mouth, but his eyes were locked on the class entrance. "Yea, 'Vin, there's probably students in Asia playing with themselves in –"

Another smack could be heard as Alvin's hand landed on Tuffnut's head. "Ye lads can't be serious. Ah could expel ye two muttonheads now..."

Hiccup interrupted, "Oh please do, school's boring me out anyway."

Alvin rubbed the bridge of his nose, clearly trying not to get a headache from dealing with one of his most notorious troublemakers – _two_ to be precise. "Sass as usual, Haddock. But droppin' ye means Ah need tae answer both yer fathers. An' Ah would like to avoid 'at anytime possible."

Turning around, he scanned the class and saw Astrid Hofferson looking at her two classmates with a disappointed look; specifically, her eyes were locked on the auburn-haired boy in green Henleys.

"Ms Hofferson, could ye come out here for a wee moment."

He watched as the blonde student tensed for a second, before getting off her seat to walk out of the class and meet up with the small group. "Sir?"

Alvin turned his head to Hiccup and watched as the young man shifted uneasily in his place, before looking back at the class's honours student. "From now onwards, Ah want Mr. Haddock tae move his seat in front of Ms Hofferson."

Hiccup had opened his mouth to protest, but before he could voice anything, the big burly man continued, this time his gaze on the Hofferson girl. "Ye, Ms. Hofferson, are tasked with ensurin' that Mr. Haddock _DISNAE_ cause any more unwanted an' unnecessary interruptions in th' class anymore. I'm entrusting ye tae with this simple task as ye are our honours student. Ah believe there isn't any problem with that arrangement?"

Part of Astrid wanted to argue back, that the arrangement would not benefit her; another part tells her that she'd been entrusted by her school to solve a problem, despite the challenges that may lie ahead.

After a brief moment of silence, she finally nodded, albeit hesitantly. And thought to herself.

_This is going to be a long school year._

* * *

Next time on Crushing on You: _"I'm not interested in girls."_


	4. Chapter 3: Helping Book

Guest 1 (April 8): Thanks for pointing out. I really need to work on my English. I'll work to correct any future and further mistakes. Oh, and thanks for the positive review :D

Guest 2 (April 9): Oh, I definitely will continue working on it.

afternoonmilady: It's nice to hear that. Thank you :)

* * *

Chapter 3: Helping Book

_Hiccup_

Oh, this is just so _fucking_ great.

Alvin Treach had just ordered me to sit in front of Astrid Hofferson. And she's supposed to keep an eye on me.

Tossing my sketchbooks into the drawer as I cleared it off any waste – mainly used foolscap paper, I let out a sigh.

"This is such a shitty place to sit. Definitely shitty luck for me."

I felt a pair of eyes glaring at the back of my head, and I swear if that certain pair had heat vision my hair would be singed by now.

"Get your facts right. I'm the one who has to sit behind you. _Right behind_ you. So you better stop your stupid stunts or else…" Astrid surely sounded irritated.

An exasperated snort escaped my throat, but I never bothered to turn around to face her. "Excuse me, missy, just because you're the bloody honour student doesn't mean you get to be the boss of me."

I felt the back of my chair getting kicked, and my ears caught the sound of a low threatening growl. "I'm warning you, Haddock."

So here's the thing: I know Astrid Hofferson since we were both in elementary school, _BUT_ one being the all goody-two-shoes-and-so-called-fierce-Valkyrie student and the other being the I-do-_whatever-the-fuck_-I-want student means we don't get along. Well, we never acknowledged each other's existence. That conversation we just had is pretty much the _longest_ conversation that's ever occurred between us.

"Okay, okay, you two," Eret started, clearly trying to diffuse the situation, not that it's working. "Don't you think things are a little bit too tensed?"

"That's what she said! HAH!" Tuffnut cheered next to me. Eret and I glared at him. Astrid probably did join in glaring at him too. Grey-blue eyes widened with innocence. "What?"

"Dude, just shut the fuck up," I told him and watched him shrug his shoulders as he continued decluttering his new desk. After Al ordered me to sit in front of Astrid Hofferson, Tuffnut had started laughing, which probably prompted the big old goof to have Mr-Idiot-Twin to sit in front of Eret, next to me.

There was a brief silence before Tuff opened his mouth again. "Well, don't come looking for me if you want that new edition of _Asian Babes _next time."

My face turned into a small scowl as my left hand was raised lazily to point the finger at him, and I heard him snigger. The rest of the day passed quickly, boring as expected since I got this new seat. Didn't stop me from zoning out of classes as usual, though, nor did it bloody stop my chair from getting kicked every time I fucking doze off.

oOo

"Yo, H?"

My eyes were glued on the road, not looking at Eret. "What?"

I heard him sigh. "You gotta stop giving Astrid a hard time."

"The fuck?" my head snapped as I turned to look at the tall and buff Sami kid. There was concern filled in his eyes. "I haven't done any-fucking-thing. _Yet_."

"No? Day one sitting in front of her and you two already argued in the first five minutes. Don't forget that time you two almost went at it again when you disrupted Heather."

"That wasn't me, Thor-damn-it. Blame my nitwit of a cousin. I just sat my ass on his table that's all."

"Then why –"

"She probably smacked me in the head with that dictionary 'cause I was the closest between the two."

"H, you know what I mean." This time I could hear Eret's voice being extremely low. Thor, he _was_ serious about this.

"Okay, okay." I raised my hands in surrender. "For fuck's sake, you're as naggy as her. No promises, son of an Eret."

"_Bleurgh_, don't call me that." Eret's face twisted into a grimace and made a gagging sound. "Ruff calls me that all the time and it's disgusting enough."

"You do know she likes you a lot. You should consider going out with her. Maybe some explosive, psychotic girlfriend can make you more fun than the Super-Matured-Brown-Dickhead you already are."

"Oh fuck you, too, H." Two middle fingers raised up and were pointed at me as I watched the big bulky figure make a left turn into the road leading to his neighbourhood.

oOo

"Mum?!" I cried loud so I hope my mom could hear from the kitchen. No response. Maybe louder. "MUM?!"

The sound of ceramics clattering and a soft 'Comin' dear' followed by muffled curses could be heard a few seconds later. Immediately I prayed to Thor that Mum hadn't caused a wreck in the kitchen again.

"Yes, son?" She said as she walked in. "HICCUP! WHAT DID YOUR CLOTHES DO TO YOU?!"

Alarmed by the exasperated tone, I snapped my head around to look at my mom and realized that a confused look was etched on her face. I noticed her eyes darting from me and towards my left, and turned towards that direction, and noticed the mountain of clothes on my bed.

"Oh. That's just me searching for my GameBoy. Did you so happen to see it anywhere lately?"

"Don't you think it'd be weird for it to be in your wardrobe?"

"I couldn't find it in my side table, so…"

"It should be there."

"I checked it like five times."

I watched mom walked towards my brown side table, pull out the drawer and after a brief ten seconds fish out a blue portable console with a smug look on her face.

"You were saying, son?"

Trust me, I've scoured the whole table, and that bloody GameBoy wasn't there. Well, come to think of it, mom has the tendency of finding things that are mysteriously hidden in places that I have tried looking at numerous times. And believe me, when I say I have no idea how she does it, I really have no idea how she does it.

"Son."

My mom and I turned out heads to look at the giant figure standing at the door. Dad's flaming hair touched the top of the door casing, and he could barely fit through – being seven feet tall and weighing four hundred pounds does that to you, I wonder how he hasn't had diabetes or high blood pressure with his size. The mysteries of Haddocks.

"Yeah, dad?"

"The school called this afternoon." He wasn't happy. It was the same disappointed scowl on his face - like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. "They said ye caused an… unwanted disturbance."

"I didn't do anything…"

His brows furrowed together and eyes narrowed. "Ye do realize yer results aren't like they used to be. Now they're all near the bottom percentile. Have ye been so busy thinking about girls ye abandoned ye studies?"

I let a huff escape me. "I'm not interested in girls." Seeing both my parents had their eyes wide, probably in shock, I quickly added. "Not into guys, either."

A few seconds of awkward silence loomed over us, and mom broke it by saying that food will be ready in another 15 minutes, then both of them left me alone in my room.

oOo

The routine in class was pretty much the same: 1. Class starts 2. I get bored 3. I doze off 4. My chair gets a violent kick. 5. I turn to see blue eyes glaring at me 6. I point a lazy middle finger and turn back in front 7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 until one of us had enough of the other.

One day, our History teacher, Mrs Ack walked in with a face as shitty as… well, shit. No one knows if she lost money in the stock market, or she was on her period, all we knew was that she looked like she wanted to kill someone.

"Let's begin the class immediately. Take out your textbooks."

Odin's butt, she even sounded like she was going to kill someone. Anyhoo, I heard shuffling behind me, and turned around just enough to see Astrid Hofferson searching her drawer, most likely for her History textbook. Her face was pale with worry.

I felt a smile crept on my face as I turned around to look at Tuff, who was also smiling. I thought it would be a lot of fun to see the Oh-So-Great-Astrid-'Honours-Student'-Hofferson make a blunder in class, then I noticed Mrs Ack's eyes narrowing at Astrid's direction.

"Those who didn't bring their textbooks, stand up now."

Like I said, _I thought_.

Just as I heard the sound of the chair behind me move, I quickly slipped my textbook behind, and got off my own seat with a smug look plastered on my face. Mrs Ack's face, however, was the hundred eighty degrees version of it.

"Mr Haddock," her teeth were gritted tightly. "It's almost 2 months since school started. And you didn't bring your textbook?"

I kept the smug on my face as a reply. Seeing that, she continued. "You do know that fees are expensive, and that your parents are the ones playing for it. What the hell do you come to school for? Lunch?"

"Well… I am a talking fishbone… so lunch is essential to become a Viking… just not as big as you" there were sniggers around the class.

"You think you're so funny? Don't you have any shame?!"

Pretty much everyone's worried eyes were on me now, and the smug was off my face this time. She must have caught me swaying left and right a little. "DIDN'T YOU HAVE BREAKFAST THIS MORNING?! WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT SMARTMOUTH?! GET YOUR BUTT OVER TO MR TREACH'S OFFICE NOW!"

I pushed my chair behind and started walking over towards the exit, picking up pace when Mrs Ack shouted "MOVE FASTER!" as some of the students flinched.

Taking a look through the window one more time, I caught sight of Astrid keeping her head down. She probably had the entire time. Her eyes were locked onto the history textbook sitting on top of the other books on her table. Looking up and seeing Mrs Ack about to shout again, my legs carried myself as fast as I could towards Alvin Treach's office.

oOo

_Why the fucking Jotunheim did I do that?_

When the principal saw me entering his office for over the nth time, he sighed, motioned me to sit on one of the chairs and keep quiet. Having made sure that I did as told, he went back to the paperwork in front of him, his big round glasses making him look goofy as he studied each page with a lot of concentration.

Sitting there, doing and saying nothing really gave me time to think. I don't understand why I did it. Covering for Hofferson, that is.

_It just didn't feel right, her getting into trouble. _

_But she forgot to bring her own book, she should get punished. _

_She's Astrid Hofferson, she's the honours student, she can't make a blunder like that. _

_But she's annoying, and arrogant, and sticks her stinking nose into every single thing not relevant to her. _

_She's your friend, you've known her for years. _

_But were we ever friends?_

I shook my head off the thoughts, and reality hit me. I just remembered History class was supposed to learn about the 'History of the Dragon Riders', and I had doodled on the drawing of the black lizard and its rider while scribbling 'Astrid is kinda cute… if she wasn't so bossy' at the first page of the chapter. _Ah shit, what if she sees that?_

I mentally slapped myself. I never cared how Astrid thought, nor how she looks. Why the fuck am I panicking now? _Ugh if this is some idiotic hormonal teen reaction, I'm definitely NOT touching myself tonight._

The sound of the bell ringing snapped me back to reality, and I looked up to see Mr Treach looking at me. "Off ye go, boyo. Try not to get into trouble anymore."

I got off the blue chair, stretched myself after sitting uncomfortably on it for over forty minutes, and turned towards the door. Twisting the knob and opening the wooden door, I turned my head towards Mr Treach and gave him a lopsided smile.

"I _try_, Al."

* * *

_Next time on Crushing On You_: "Do the highlighted questions 3 times. Pass it to me tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: HEYYY GUYSSS. Sorry for the late update. Studying for Finals has really caught up with me, so I'm pretty sure I won't be near a computer anytime soon. Doesn't mean I'm dumping my stories though. Seeing those reviews and followers, ESPECIALLY THOSE REVIEWS, gives me the motivation to continue writing. I may be a little slow on the updates lately… so bear with me for now please. **

**Also, this is for clank2662 who asked about the line '**_**Next Time on Crushing on You: "I'm not interested in girls"**_**' and got confused by it. It's a "quote" that would be spoken by one of the characters in the following chapter, and usually serve as a way to give an idea of what will happen there. Or maybe, just because I wish to keep the plot of the chapter a secret, they are just lines that will appear but does not really affect the overall plot whatsoever. Hope this clears things up. :)**

**I'll try to start replying to other reviews in the next chapter. Just leave a review and I'll type down the reply when I'm working on the story xD**

**Love you. XOXO**

**-LaidEffect**


	5. Chapter 4: Returning the Favour

**clank2662: Hmmm, mayyybe he might. _This_ is a fanfic. So who knows? *evil smirk***

**No Account (Guest): Thank you!:D**

**A/N: So, here's the latest chap. Hope y'all readers enjoy reading it ;)**

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Chapter 4: Returning the Favour

_Normal_

Blue eyes scanned the stationery lined up on the cupboard, stopping when they locked onto the stack of blue pens placed in the transparent plastic holder. The memory of the boy in green henleys unexpectedly standing up to cover for her blunder had confused her.

_Why did you help me?_

Try as she might, the blonde female still could not comprehend the events that had unfolded during History class in the morning. But she remembers two particular details of the event well: 1) Haddock had helped her, and 2) the first page of 'History of Dragon Riders'. Her mind recalled the doodling on the dragon – identified as the Night Fury – and its rider, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, or known as the Dragon Master. Blue ink had outlined the dragon on its nostrils and spine, with black lines shading the left (and red) tail fin. Two oversized horns were drawn on the dragon rider's helmet, giving it a comical look of a devil.

But it was the blue words scribbled on top of the image that kept replaying in her head. And even in the present, the words floated in front of her.

'Astrid is kinda cute… if she wasn't so bossy'.

"Hello? Midgard to Hofferson. Ast? Are you still there?"

Head snapping towards the voice, azure eyes met green. "Huh?"

Heather, whose face was initially filled with concern, was soon replaced with relief. "Thank Thor you're still alive."

Astrid's eyes narrowed, and her head quickly snapped back forward to look at the blue pens placed in front of her. "What are you talking about?"

"You look like you were in dreamland. Or more like – confused-land."

"Who's stuck in la-la-land?" Another voice boomed in the shop as Ruffnut popped her head out from the end of the cupboard to look at the other two girls, curiosity written all over her face.

Ignoring Ruffnut and refusing to look at the raven-haired girl in the eyes, Astrid quickly grabbed two blue pens and rushed towards the cashier. "I don't know what you two are rambling about."

A pair of green eyes turned to look at the pair of grey-blue ones, both clearly confused by the attitude of their friend.

oOo

The water in the grey translucent bottle swished as the lanky male twirled it, forming a mini tornado. Forest green eyes watched as the self-made twister slowly dissipated, and the ends of the lips curled up to form a lopsided smile.

_I am the master of water after all._ Hiccup thought to himself as he removed the lid to take a gulp from his bottle.

A sharp jerk on the top right corner of his back shocked him to the point he almost dropped his bottle, and had to spit out the water still in his mouth, wetting the floor outside the classroom in the process. Turning his whole body around to identify the 'attacker', the auburn-haired teen was surprised to see a blonde girl in her favourite blue hoodie facing him.

"What do you want, Hofferson?"

Azure blue eyes settled to look at the buttons of his green shirt, unwilling to bring them to look at his own. Hiccup narrowed his eyes at the honours student, who was looking as if she was having an internal battle. Ten seconds passed without any word, the boy let out a huff and got ready to walk away.

"Well, since there's nothing, I'll just get goi –"

"Thank you, for yesterday."

Hiccup found himself frozen on his spot, unable to get his sudden stiff legs to move. Slowly turning his head to look at Astrid again, he raised his left eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Tha –"

"No biggie. I've got thicker skin." He got his legs to function again and prepared to move.

"But –"

"Hofferson," Hiccup turned around again, his face showing a mixture of annoyance and confusion. "Why don't you just buy me a soda from the café?"

"Still…"

"It's just flipping weird listening to you being grateful."

Astrid opened her mouth and closed it almost immediately, unsure of what to say. But she did want to ask him something.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." Hiccup snarked. Azure eyes narrowed in annoyance. But still, she kept her head up to look at the boy in front of her. Being almost a head shorter than he was had started to tire her neck a little.

"Why don't you study?"

The auburn haired teen pondered on the question for a moment, a lopsided smile forming as he figured a reply.

"Well, 'cause I don't want to. I mean, it's quite easy studying, and I'm worried any time I get serious I become too smart. If I do start studying, you won't be the top student anymore."

With that, Hiccup strutted back into class. Astrid rolled her eyes at his remark, certain that most of it were just plain bluff. Then an idea hit her.

oOo

Making sure his sketchbooks were in his light coloured leather back, Hiccup plugged his earphones and blasted 'It's My Life' as he stopped by his black bicycle. He unconsciously hummed to the song as he knelt down to unlock the chain holding his front tyre.

Unknown to him, Astrid had walked up behind him, her red bag slung over her. "Haddock?"

No answer, just the sound humming came from him. Rolling her eyes, Astrid unzipped her bag and fished out a blue pen from it before using it to poke him on his back again.

The jab caught Hiccup's attention, causing him to his head around. Noticing the blonde girl behind him, he got up slowly and removed his left earphone after placing the chains on the ground. "What now?"

Seeing she had his attention, the honours student fished out a book and a piece of folded paper from her bag, and passed them to him. Eyeing her suspiciously from top to toe, Hiccup cautiously accepted them. Looking at the crumpled paper, he raised his left eyebrow and darted his eyes back at her.

"That's a quiz I prepared on my own," Astrid started, watching as Hiccup opened the paper and studied the contents. "Finish them and pass it to me tomorrow."

She noticed his face looking amused. "You're kidding, right? A love letter? From you?"

"You'll need to use the maths book as reference to the formulas," she stated nonchalantly, ignoring his remark, as she pointed at the book. "And open page 83. Do the highlighted questions 3 times. Pass it to me tomorrow."

By then, Hiccup had knelt back down to attend to his bicycle, looking uninterested. She sighed. "You'll most likely score above 50% in the next test."

That caught his attention, snapping his head around to ask 'Only 50?" and turned back to wipe his front tyre.

"I never said scoring good grades is easy. Get the basics down first, then I'll give you the harder questions."

"What on Helheim did I owe you? Why should I listen to you?"

Astrid thought about it for a moment. "So I won't have to look down at you."

"Yeah right," Hiccup snorted at the statement. "You're just stuck up on your super perfect grades. I suggest you go on, not that I ever cared."

Astrid found herself hissing with anger, but fought hard to keep her composure. "I never look down at bad grades. I just look down at you because you pick on others when you never even put in any effort at all!"

She stormed off, taking long strides away from Hiccup, who had turned his head to look in her direction, pondering on the words she had just said to him.

oOo

"Where did all the tissue go? I just bought them last week."

Hiccup ignored his mum, who was tidying up his room, and slurped away at the cup of instant noodles in his hand. Walking over to his messy study desk, his eyes locked on the quiz paper spread out on top of the rest of his sketchbooks and _Ultimate Spider-Man_ comics.

_"I just look down at you because you pick on others when you never even put in any effort at all!"_

Somehow, the lanky teen felt his chest clench as he recalled Astrid's words, and he felt his heart pounding in his chest. The urge to prove her wrong boiled in him. To prove to her that he can do better. That he too can put in the effort.

Much to his own surprise, and his mother's, he placed the cup down on the table, sat firmly on his wooden stool, grabbed the nearest pencil, and started working on the questions in the paper.

* * *

Next Time on Crushing on You: _"I'll bet, ten years from now I'll still fail to understand log and algebra, and it won't screw my life up"_

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**A/N: Don't forget to R&R :P**

**\- With love, LaidEffect**


	6. Chapter 5: Effort

**obelix1999: I'm glad you like it. Hopefully, you'll continue to feel the same way as the story progresses. :D**

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Chapter 5: Effort

_Normal_

All the boy whose head was tilted down could do was shuffle into class, his mop of auburn hair covering his jaded face. Slowly and tiredly, his exhausted legs carried his body towards his seat. Dragging the chair back as he dropped his bag onto the floor and sat down with a loud thud, he placed his head on the brown wooden table with his left arm acting as a makeshift pillow.

Blue eyes looked up from the Chemistry textbook they were occupied with to watch the entire scene that panned out. As soon as the figure in green henleys took his seat to sleep, the blonde-haired girl stretched out and used the blue pen in her hand to jab the top right of the sleeping person's back.

Gaining no response from the tired body, she poked again. "Hiccup."

The second jab had Hiccup jolting awake, his face twisted into a tired frown. Turning around to face his 'assailant', he made his irritation known with his tone. "What?"

"The quiz."

The lanky male bent down to unzip his bag and fish out the paper, mumbling inaudibly throughout even when he passed the crumpled piece to the girl behind him. She grabbed it quickly and scanned the work, marking the correct answers with checks and crossing out the ones that were wrong. Drowsy forest green eyes observed as Astrid's own narrowed halfway through the marking process.

"You made a lot of mistakes. You did the quiz without referring to the book, didn't you?"

Suddenly the floor was very interesting for Hiccup and he let out a huff. Seeing that, Astrid leant forward, quiz in her left hand. Her right hand held on to the blue pen and she used it to point at the questions that were crossed.

"You can find the answers to these two questions in the exercise book. This one is trickier, and you can't use the formula directly to solve it. You'll need to use these two theories. I've written down the pages for reference. You can go back and read them. Here you go."

Seeing the paper being handed back to him, Hiccup took a deep breath. "Studying is such a pain in the ass."

Astrid returned the remark with a self-satisfied smile. "That's why those who do well in studies are awesome."

oOo

The squirting sound of sauce being squeezed could be heard as the three girls stood at the counter. School had just ended for the day and the three of them had decided to grab some food at the nearby sub shop. There was an awkward silence between the trio, and the skinny female with a long face was quick to break it.

"Why are you helping Haddock with his studies?"

Astrid turned her head to look at Ruffnut and saw the female twin raise an eyebrow at her. She thought about the question for a few seconds before coming up with a reply.

"He has bad grades."

"But it's none of your concern."

This time Heather had spoken, and Astrid snapped her head to look at her closest friend. Just as quickly she faced forward towards the counter.

"They really are horrendous."

"So? It's not like you ever cared about the guys." Ruffnut let out an exasperated huff. "And we're talking about Harrison Haddock. Neither of you like each other. Even my muttonhead of a brother says something's off."

Despite the Thorston's reputation for being destructive and lack of attention, they always had a mysterious knack of noticing details that many would overlook.

"Here you go, ladies."

As they made payment and grabbed their meals, Astrid silently thanked the gods for temporarily saving her from having to answer her friends' interrogation and made a beeline for the exit, Heather and Ruffnut just on her heels.

"I just dislike lazy people without any sense of self-awareness."

Hearing two 'Oh's behind her, Astrid turned around to see Heather and Ruffnut looking down on the ground.

"Cheer up! I'm not talking about you two!"

Immediately both girls broke into a grin and cheekily shoved the honours student. "You better don't!"

oOo

"Studying is such a bore!"

Hiccup had thrown his head back in frustration, the cover of the black pen stuck up in his nostril as he tried to comprehend the new mathematics exercise that Astrid had given him right after the class ended.

"How the fuck does Astrid Hofferson even does this every fucking day?"

His brain had refused to absorb any form of academic knowledge, and the Berkian night cold only made his body long for a good sleep. He blew out the cover from his nose and looked down on his leg having felt a tug to see a figure with acid green eyes clinging on it.

"Do you have any idea? You tell me! No?! I'll tell you, then! Solving these complicated maths questions will not do any good shit in life!"

The black figure ignored his rant and started to hump his leg with ferocious speed instead. Hiccup rolled his eyes and muttered 'useless canine' as he turned his focus back to the exercise. Unknown to him, his parents had watched his sudden hardworking demeanour with interest, even coming in to cover him with a blanket when their son had dozed off on his table around 3 in the morning.

oOo

The stocky male sat his plate of food down at the table of four other boys, who were at the stall eating breakfast before they headed off to class. Snotlout, wanting attention immediately and loudly initiated a conversation.

"So, should I go for a 'Dragon Hunters' box or two boxes of 'Dragon Trappers'?"

Eret turned his head to look at the boy with jet-black hair. "Hunters cards are too bloody expensive to collect."

"So I'll collect the Trappers cards then?"

"The fuck do you want to collect those cards?" Tuffnut jerked his head up to glare Snotlout with an incredulous look. "You haven't even finished collecting the Dragons series!"

"So? Why do you give a fuck?" Snotlout glared back and crossed his arms before turning away from the long-faced male. "Shut the fuck up, Tuffnut!"

"You shut up first, Slut-lout!"

Snotlout, feeling that he can't beat Tuffnut, called out to his cousin. "Hiccup, what do you think?"

"Yeah, Little Hiccy, tell Snotface he's a loser!" Tuffnut chimed in as he turned his head to the boy sitting on his left, only to realize a head with auburn hair was on top the end of the table. "Yo, H?"

"Cuz? You okay?" Snotlout was concerned as well. But before he could wake the sleeping figure up, Tuffnut had beat him to it and started scratching Hiccup's ear with the fork in his hand while screaming at the top of his lungs into the earhole facing up.

"OY! HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU FUCKING JERK OFF LAST NIGHT?! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SO TIRED?! RAHHHH!"

The barrage of scratches and shouting had awoken an annoyed Hiccup and he muttered a loud 'Fuck off!" while shoving Tuffnut. The male twin lost balance and fell backwards, landing his butt on the wet floor.

"OW! I'M HURT! I AM VERY MUCH HURT!"

"Serves your fucking ass right," Hicccup said uninterestedly as he stood up, ignoring his half-finished meal of chicken meatballs and mashed potatoes. He had slung his bag over his shoulder. "I'm heading to school."

Before anyone could protest, he had walked off towards the exit. Shrugging their shoulders, the other boys quickly finished their meals and wanted to follow their friend. However, they were delayed when Snotlout and Tuffnut got into a food fight using Hiccup's mashed potatoes after the stout male had taken Hiccup's chicken meatball, which Tuffnut yelled being 'diabolical' and something of 'completely devoid of any continence' while starting the fight with said mashed potatoes.

Rushing off to school after making payment and apologizing profoundly to an extremely annoyed stall owner while continuously chatting with each other, they reached class just in time to see Astrid Hofferson slapping a book on the back of a sleeping Harrison Haddock.

"Correction. 10 minutes."

The tired figure sitting in front got up and turned behind to look at the blonde girl, his tired eyes filled with pride nonetheless.

"Because I'm smart, I'll just need 5 minutes."

Silence took over the four boys who had just witnessed their close friend doing revision, but they were quick to shrug off the awkward silence that loomed over them and went to their seats.

oOo

"Eret Eretson."

The buff Sami-descent stood up and made his way towards Ms Mala Queen, unable to fight off the smile that appeared on his face as Oh's and Ah's filled the classroom when the short haired lady holding his quiz paper announced Eret's score of 85%.

"Excellent work, Mr Eretson. Continue your good work."

Eret gave his thanks and turned back to his seat, high-fiving an ecstatic Ingerman as he walked back to his seat. Fishlegs too had a similar score of 84%.

Hiccup watched the exchange, waiting for his own quiz paper, albeit impatiently. It was his first test since Astrid Hofferson had started… 'coaching' him on his academics, and he was anxious to know how well he had performed. Despite the uneasy feelings rushing in his veins, he kept a calm composure, unwilling to show any sign of 'weaknesses'.

"Harrison Haddock."

The auburn-haired student snapped his head around, staring at Ms Mala Queen. The expression on her face was unreadable.

_Please don't be bad. Please don't be bad._

"Seventy-five percent."

The Oh's and Ah's were deafening, silencing the 'what the fuck?' muttered by Tuffnut who fell off his chair out of shock. Hiccup couldn't resist but smile, getting up and walking – skipping – over to Ms Queen who also had a smile wider than his face.

"I take it that you've been studying, Mr Haddock?"

"Nah, I'm just a genius."

"I see. Then, I expect you to continue your genius streak from now on."

Keeping the smile on his face, Hiccup sat back down. He was in such a happy state he missed Ms Queen dismissing the class and reminding them that they have another Maths test the following week.

"So, genius, huh?"

He turned himself around to see Astrid Hofferson smiling at him. His smile turned into a smug.

"Actually, there is no big deal scoring so high marks in Maths, especially for this kind of problems."

Seeing the honours student raising an eyebrow in curiosity, he continued.

"I'll bet, ten years from now I'll still fail to understand log and algebra, and it won't screw my life up."

He received a nod in response, causing him to furrow his brows and dropping his smile.

"Don't you believe me?"

"I do."

"Then why the fuck do you keep studying so hard?"

Astrid tilted her head to a side. "You can't expect returns in everything that you do."

Forest green eyes rolled in annoyance. "Thor, you really like to sound like a mature adult."

"It will be no help in life if one keeps being immature like you."

A smile crept back on his face. "You never tried. How can you tell?"

He watched as blue eyes darted back to the book on her table. "There are things that don't need to be done to know that they're meaningless."

His eyelids, brows and smile dropped on that statement, and then turned back to stuff his books and quiz paper into his bag before leaving the class.

Unaware to the two students, a pair of blue eyes had witnessed the exchange, narrowing as the corner of the figure's lips raised a little.

* * *

Next Time on Crushing On You:_ "It's not like you could beat me."_

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I whipped it up on the go. I think this story is in its first-quarter point. So, I hope to hear from you - the readers - soon on your thoughts on how the story will progress. I'll reply as I update with the next chapter XD**


	7. Chapter 6: The Bet

**No Account: He's currently one (if not **_**the most**_**) of my favourite version of Hiccup xD**

**IcyForest: Glad you find it interesting, and I will continue to update this (hopefully) on a weekly basis :)**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Bet

_Hiccup_

The yellow and green soda can placed in front of me abruptly cut me off my train of thought. Turning my head to the left, Snotlout had conveniently placed himself just next to me on the trough urinal. Instinctively and uneasily, I shifted to the right to create some distance between me and my stocky cousin.

Noticing my uneasy demeanour, Snot let out a huff as he started to pee.

"Seriously, Hicc? We've already seen more than we should when we were young."

"The fuck do you want?"

Snotlout suddenly snapped his head in front, face turning into a serious expression. "You've seemed to be getting close with Astrid Hofferson lately."

I raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"Do me a favour."

"No." My brain was telling me he wanted my help at something stupid. "Don't tell me you want me to write a love letter."

He turned to face me. "Write it nicely, and I'll copy it."

I could help but laugh. Then I saw that his face still held that serious expression and my laughter stopped. Eyeing the can that stood silently, an idea came to me. Immediately, I tried my best to put on a straight face.

"But I don't think one can of dnL would be enough for that favour."

"Fuck?" A shock expression replaced his once serious face. "You're kidding right?"

I kept my face as straight as possible, to tell him I was not joking. Probably I did look convincing, because he had put on his thinking face.

"Don't hurt yourself thinking too much, Snot."

"I heard that. Okay, here's the deal. If Astrid goes out with me…"

"I doubt she ever would."

"Just listen! Ugh. If she agrees, which she would because she definitely would not be able to resist all this – Oh, for Odin's sake! Stop laughing!"

I'll admit. I couldn't stop laughing, especially with my cousin's obliviousness towards Astrid's distaste of him. I zipped my pants and walked towards the sink to wash my hands, but I was still laughing. Eventually, I took control of myself and told him to continue, much to his annoyance.

"As I said: she goes out with me – Stop fucking laughing! Give it a rest will you?! – and I'll buy you a year's worth of soda of your choice."

"Don't forget your 'Legendary' Bewilderbeast card."

"What?" His brows furrowed and he crossed his arms in front of his chest, his right foot tapping the ground as he looked like he was considering the 'deal'. Eventually, he sighed. "Oh, alright. It'll be worth it."

I spit on my right palm and stretched it out towards Snotlout, who had made his way towards the sink to wash his hands. Without missing a beat, he did the same and grasped my outstretched hand, giving it a good shake to seal the deal.

oOo

The buzzer signalled the end of the first half. Feeling sweat trying to cool my body temperature, I looked around to see the grim looks on the faces of my teammates as we walked towards the locker room.

"Hiccup."

My neck snapped up to look at the figure that had apparently blocked my way towards the room. Somehow ignoring the glances from the other players, she stretched her hand out to hand me the bottle of water in her possession. I narrowed my eyes and felt my brows knitting above them as I looked at Astrid while I grabbed the bottle and drank the content in it. I kept my eyes locked onto hers as I felt my throat moist again from rehydrating myself.

"What are you doing here? I don't remember you attending any Berk High Furies games."

She ignored both my remark and my eyes. Instead, she tried to change the topic. "So, the game doesn't look to going too well."

"You still haven't answered the question."

"Do you go for cram school?"

"Fuck should I cram my head?"

"How can you not go when you're so… dumb." I swear I saw the corner of her lips rise a little as I resisted the urged to toss the bottle onto her face.

"Mind your own business."

Apparently, that didn't stop her. "Starting tonight, stay here and study after school."

"Stay back at school?" I couldn't believe my ears. "The fuck is wrong with you?"

"I'll stay back, too." She quickly added in, albeit a little too quickly.

"What?" I felt my left eyebrow rose in amusement. "You're asking me on a date?"

"No!" Her face turned into a scowl at the question. _Did her cheek just turn pink?_ "Ugh. Let's make a deal. If I can advise you on winning this game, you'll stay back."

"And if we lose? I don't need to stay back at all?" I started to smile at the offer. Astrid never cared about the boys' basketball team, so she probably doesn't know a thing or two about the game.

She nodded. "But you have to listen to do as what I'm going to say."

"I'm all ears, then." Oh, I'm so loving this deal. At least I can skip cram school.

"So, you guys are trailing 26-47, and there are still 16 minutes left for this game. And you're the team's best 3-point shooter why don't you try…"-

oOo

Why the fuck did I even make the deal with Astrid? The fuck is wrong with me?

Not that I don't appreciate her advice. Her advice on 'changing from the aggressive all-out-attack to fast-break' really changed the game for us. I gotta admit, her advice on me aiming to score more 3-pointers was useful, since the Knights spent most of their time defending inside the 2-point line.

Now here's the problem: the deal was to do as she advised, and if we win I'll need to stay back at school to study. So, we won. And now I need to fucking stay back. Fuck me.

I stared at my watch, which said 7:00 p.m., then at the almost-finished YakBurger in my other hand.

When I phoned my parents to tell them I was staying back at school to study, dad had asked Gobber – my godfather – to buy me food, since I would be stuck in school all day. Luckily, he decided to buy from the nearest McBorknald's.

_Thanks, Gobber. At least you remember my favourite food._

Looking at the burger again, and realising it probably needs just two more chews, I stuffed it into my mouth and lifted my head up to at the blonde-haired girl sitting just two rows in front of the table to my left. Her head was dipped in front as she was busy studying History. I think it's History, since the book is that bloody thick. _It's History, right? Argh! Who the fuck cares?_

Turns out, whenever Astrid doesn't have taekwondo training or need to go to cram school, she'll stay back to study. Usually alone, or with Heather or Ruffnut or both.

"Hey," I started having swallowed the big chunk of burger. "Did you ask me to accompany you because you're afraid of that rumour about that stupid lycanwing?"

"I just fear for your dumbness." I could hear her smile smugly as she kept her attention on her book. Then she turned around to face me. "Here you go."

I raised my left hand on reflex and caught hold of the packet of biscuits she had tossed towards me, muttering a soft 'thanks'. Then, my brain gave me an invisible slap as I remembered something.

"Oh, right," I bent down towards my bag and fished out a folded piece of paper while Astrid turned around again. Getting off my seat, I stretched myself forward to pass it to her. "Snot asked me to give it to you. Said it's from him."

She cocked an eyebrow in my direction, which I replied with a shrug. Then I opened the red packet she gave me and started savouring the biscuit as she silently read the letter.

"This is your handwriting."

My eyes snapped open at that comment she made after 30 seconds of blissful silence – _Wait, blissful?_ – and locked onto to hers which were wide with amusement. She was trying her best not to burst into giggles.

Trying my best to look dumb, I gave her a confused 'huh?'

"You really suck at writing love letters."

"How dare you? People say I'm even better than Shake-ear what's-his-name."

"Since you're so free writing letters for people," she said as she crumpled the paper and tossed it in the direction of the class bin, "why don't you spend more time working on Mr Bludvist's essay?"

I couldn't give her an answer, so there was silence for 5 minutes as she turned back to study, _again_. After that, I got bored and decided to start another conversation.

"To be frank," I raised my left hand to comb my hair to the side, "Even though I'm cute, smart, and even humorous, don't fall for me easily. Because I am a lone wolf, travelling in the wild wind."

_I stopped myself at that point. What the fuck? I sound so much like Snotlout!_

_Well, she did say you suck at writing love letters. So…_

_But still, I sound like that muttonhead of my cousin. I can't believe I said that!_

_Hmm, oh well._

"Oh, thanks," Astrid didn't hear my internal bickering. _Thank gods_. "I'm not into boys dumber than me."

_Astrid Hofferson doesn't like boys dumber than her?! Don't let her hurt your pride! Say you're not dumb!_

"Me? Dumb?" I said as my left hand dropped onto the table, creating a not-so-loud '_thump_'. "Please, I'm just letting you win on purpose. I don't study hard because I don't want to beat you and hurt your feelings."

"Oh, that's so nice." Sarcasm was thick in her tone. "Please, mister, save your kindness. You're welcome to try to beat me anytime."

An idea formed in my head at that remark. "How about we make a deal? A bet – to be more specific."

Seeing that she raised her head up but not making a reply, I decided to continue. "We'll bet on… hair."

"How do you wanna go with it?" This time she straightened up, and I was sure she's into the bet. Hoffersons don't back down from a challenge. _Or that's what they said._ I leant forward.

"If you beat me in the upcoming midterm, next month, you can do whatever you want with me. But, _IF I WIN_, you'll need to braid your hair instead of tying it as a ponytail. For one whole month."

She turned around, a smug look plastered on her face.

"Sure. It's not like you could beat me, anyway."

* * *

_Next time on Crushing on You: "Do you think Astrid likes me?"_

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys. LaidEffect here again. So, this is just a short (okay, it'll be pretty long. Maybe a bit) announcement: I'll be making 'Fitting In' a monthly update story, and 'Worlds Collide' will be put on an extended hiatus for a rewrite. I realized some of the characters in WC are way too OOC, so I'll be working on making them as genuinely in character as they should be. **

**With that out, I have another story working on. It's called Youth: Turns Out, You Never Left. It'll mainly be told in Astrid's POV, unlike this one which is told in both Hiccup and 3****rd**** POV. But that's in my so-called "Planning" file, so it still needs (obviously) some more planning.**

**If you guys are interested to know on my progress on my stories, feel free to check out my profile. I'll try to update it either on a biweekly or monthly basis.**

**That's all for now, toodles and do leave a R&R. And maybe share it with your friends ***_**Shameless advertising**_*****


	8. Chapter 7: Motivation

Chapter 7: Motivation

_Normal_

"Sure. It's not like you could beat me, anyway."

Hiccup didn't really expect her to be so smug, or the reply _that_ had come out of her mouth. Immediately he was struck by the cockiness she suddenly possessed.

_Prove her wrong, dimwit. Come on, you can beat her. Wipe that Thor-damned smug look off her face._

oOo

All of this, just to prove a cocky statement wrong.

The lanky male showed up in school the following day earlier than usual. The girl sitting right behind watched as he sat down and leant forward into a sleeping position. Immediately she stretched out her pen and jabbed him on his back, jolting him awake.

Grumbling inaudibly about his lack of sleep and her lack of respect for personal space, he slammed a stack of paper on her table, which the girl took without peeling her eyes off the boy.

Class ended, and night came, the boy found himself in his room revising diligently. Pen cover stuck up his nostril as he studied the additional work he was given by the girl who sat behind him earlier the day, knowing that somewhere on the other side of town she's revising just as hard to make sure she doesn't lose the bet.

The week after, both of them stayed back in school every night, participating in an unofficial competition to see who could complete the most work. Most of the time the girl finishes first, and occasionally the lanky boy would throw his hands up in frustration before continuing the work at hand. However, on the rare occasion that the boy wins, the blonde-haired girl would secretly smile to herself as her male counterpart jumps up in triumph.

In the same week, in four classes Ms Mala called upon her students to come forward and write the answer to the questions written on the whiteboard, and by the third class, she came to be used to seeing one messy-haired boy along with a blonde-haired female come forth by rushing forward and ended up tussling for the marker. Eventually, their Mathematics teacher would write the same question twice next to each other, to allow the uncanny pair to write their answers simultaneously.

By the third week, the early grouchiness from the male slowly dissipated, and he started to not mind the jabs in the mornings, instead, he will intentionally lie on the table, waiting for the tip of a blue pen to lightly stab his back. Occasionally he would shove whatever sheet of additional exercise onto the girl's face, who would grab it while being unable to hold back her laughter. At times, he would tease by pretending to hand over his exercise, only to pull back the moment she was about to grab the papers.

Even when participating in the weekly event of cleaning the school compound, they each would have a book in their free hand, eyes locked on the words printed in the books while the other hand would be sweeping the floors. That doesn't the boy from snatching the book from the girl's hand and toss it far away whenever he could, earning a whack with the broom and a scolding from the blonde before she ran over to pick her book up while he cheekily and triumphantly breaks into a victory dance involving exaggerated hip-shaking.

Competitive Maths answering didn't halt the male from trying to copy his new rival's answer on the board whenever he couldn't get the answer, and unaware to him, the girl would frequently, albeit secretly, slow down for blue eyes to stare at the figure next to her intent in getting his answers correct.

One month passed, and midterms were over. Another two weeks later, a blonde girl was standing at the front of a group of students who had gathered at the school notice board. Azure eyes scanned the piece of paper pinned on the notice board, while a tall but lanky figure stood at the back of the crowd. Despite his tall stature, he tiptoed to allow himself to have a proper look at the person standing ahead of the rest. Seeing both their names on the list, she turned around excitedly and raised a hand, her fingers forming a sign.

Forest green eyes caught sight of the '2' sign, and a face once filled with curiosity immediately turned into a pout. That didn't deter the girl, however, as she felt a smile form on her face at the sight of the pouting auburn-haired boy.

oOo

_Hiccup_

The pitter-patter of the rain and the cooling night wind almost comforted me to close my eyes to have a nap. But my eyes were locked onto the figure sitting in front of me. As usual, her head was dipped in front as her focus was paid fully onto making sure she makes it pass the upcoming test, with good grades. Mind you, the test? It's in another month from now. Despite that, my mind was preoccupied with a nagging thought which just wouldn't stop playing.

_I lost the bet. I fucking lost the bet. To Astrid Hofferson. AGAIN_._ Fuck that. Worry about that later, now I need to honor my end of the bet. FUCK HOW CAN I LOSE?! Oh, I have an idea!_

Feeling the pout formed on my mouth earlier stretching in a smile, albeit a cheeky one, I lifted myself off my seat and sneakily made my way out of the classroom and dashed towards the nearest stairs as soon as I stepped foot onto the corridor.

oOo

_Normal_

_It's already 30 minutes, why isn't Hiccup back yet?_

Brows knitted into a frown as Astrid Hofferson tried to keep her focus on the Chemistry book in front of her, but she couldn't stop thinking of the auburn-haired boy who left her alone in the classroom without a word.

Though she did not hear him get off his seat, she definitely heard him running down and his scream the moment water splashed with a thump, followed by more loud water-splashed footsteps.

Did something happen to him?

Before she realized it, she found herself looking at her phone, set on the dial with Hiccup's number on the screen. Her thumb hovered above the call button as she contemplated to phone the police.

Time passed slowly as she had her internal debate, but sped up again as soon as her ears registered the sound of soaked footsteps squishing in the classroom.

Immediately she turned, ready for an intruder, only to see the familiar face of an auburn-haired boy, clothes drenched in rainwater, making his way back to his favorite seat at the back. But something was off. Different. Astrid couldn't place it at first, but it took her 5 seconds to notice it.

"What happened to your hair?"

Indeed, to describe the sight in front of her eyes as surprising was an understatement. Hiccup was always known, at least to her, to have long hair. At times they were so long they touched his shoulders. This time, however, they were cut short to the point she could even see the slight hint of skin.

Beaming with pride, Hiccup raised his left hand, and shaped it into a gun and aimed at her.

"I guess we're even now."

Had Hiccup not been as attentive to his soaked condition as he was, he would had caught sight of the blonde-haired girl quickly turning her head back to the front, hand covering her mouth as she held back a laugh.

oOo

The next day, Hiccup regretted his decision to shave his hair. During the lunch break, the now bald figure found himself surrounded by his friends at the cafeteria table.

Snotlout had comfortably sat behind his cousin and was using his palms to rub Hiccup's shaven head. He was enjoying it, at the expense of Hiccup.

"Cut it out, Snot."

"Someone had a bad day." Snotlout remarked as the boy in front swatted his palms away from the bald head.

"Oh, glorious Hiccup," Tuffnut began, "you must tell me. Who would wrong you to the point you need to shave your mighty hair off your shiny head."

Hiccup managed a disgusted "tsk" and was about to respond when he heard a gasp behind him. Turning his head around, Hiccup noticed Snotlout's eyes and mouth had opened wide, and turned to the direction his cousin was facing.

At the cafeteria door, three girls walked into the cafeteria, laughing and smiling as they conversed with each other. Green eyes found themselves locked onto the one in the middle.

Astrid Hofferson was in her blue hoodie and black jeans, the usual. But it was her hair that caught Hiccup's attention.

"Guys, do you think Astrid likes me?"

"Shut it, Snotlout. What in the Nine Realms gives you that shit ass idea?"

"When did she know I like girls with braids? Huh? You tell me, Son of an Eret!"

"Since the fuck when did you start liking girls with braids?"

Despite the commotion that was building up just next to him, Hiccup found himself awestruck by the blonde girl walking towards the counter with her two other friends.

It was a question he could never find an answer to.

_I lost the bet. So why would Astrid braid her hair anyway?_

"Whatever it is guys, I think I feel more motivated to study even more."

* * *

_Next time on Crushing on You: "I suspect you don't have balls."_

* * *

**HIYA EVERYBODY! LAIDEFFECT IS BACK! YIPPEE!**

**First of all, I AM SO SORRY FOR GOING MISSIN FOR ALMOST A YEAR! Life caught up, and things didn't look pretty. But now I am back and I'm so so so ready to update this story. Will keep you guys posted and will try my best to stick to my original promise a year ago! 3 Laid **


	9. Chapter 8: Standing Up

Chapter 8: Standing Up

_Normal_

The rays from the sun that lit up the classroom were blocked out by the curtains closed by nervous hands before the student walked back to his seat. Just like the rest of his classmates seated around, he kept his head down facing his own table. The air around him felt cold, and thedimlightinginthe room made the atmosphere in the room a lot tenser than it already way. For the boy, goosebumps set his hair standing at the back of his neck as he felt as if he was being watched by the bulky man who was pacing in the class, eyes scanning every seated individual from head to toe as he passed by.

Standing himself at the centre of the front row, he raised his right hand to look at the watch on his wrist and noted the time to be half-past one, just before the end of class. The man nodded to himself before turning his attention back to the students, keeping a stern but menacing look on his face.

"Alright, ye rascals listen up. The class's funds have gone missin'. But since it was here an 'our ago, there's no way an outsider could have done it."

Seeing that the only response he received were heads still facing the table, he continued with his angry booming voice, shaking some of the students as he spoke.

"I recommend ye make it easy work for me. Admit to the theft, and ye'll be let off easy."

Still no response, the man had begun to lose his patience.

"Make it hard, and I swear that ye will not get off so easily and I Savage the Staunch, will make life hell on earth for ye for the rest of yer days in this school. Ye rascals 'ear me?"

Chest heaving with fury and the uneasy silence he continued to receive, a solution came to light at the back of his mind. Seemingly pleased, he nodded his head slowly while slowly stroking his moustache

"So, ye like to make it hard aye? I want everybody to take out a piece of paper and pen, and write down the names of whoever ye suspect is the thief. The five names that appear the most I want their bags given to me so i search can them first."

"If by any chance I do not find the munie, I'll have every single one of ye rascals checking each others bag for the money. Is that clear?"

The sound of wooden scratching concrete from the back of the class slowly echoed in response, and Savage turned his head to see a short, stocky boy standing up, eyes burning with anger despite having a tired frown pasted on the boy's all-too-recognizable and arrogant face. Savage was not impressed at the boy's act of defiance.

"Just what the Hel do ye think ye doin', Jorgenson?"

If Savage's threatening voice had fazed the young man, he did nothing to show it. Instead, he kept himself as calm as he could get.

"This is wrong, Savage. You can't have us doing things like that."

"I think ye ferget, laddie. Between ye and me, who is the bloody prefect 'ere?"

As quick as Savage replied, another chair was pushed backwards and a tall lanky boy stood up. Cocky emerald eyes greeted Savage as he challenged the authority present.

"You are, Sir. But you're full of yak-dung!"

"Ye say that again, rascal!"

"I said you're full of shite, asshole!"

Seeing that pointing his crooked finger and getting in the boy's face did not intimate the bald boy, and instead had his authority challenged further, Savage put his hands on his hips in a huff.

"Harrison Haddock, Sebastian Jorgenson, ye two rascals are now suspected of conspiring and theft. Gimme ye bags for search, NOW!"

"I'm sorry, Sir."

Everyone in the room turned their heads towards the voice and was taken aback to see the student standing behind the tall bald boy.

"What do ye want, Hofferson?"

Taking an uneasy gulp, the girl spoke out as firmly as she could. "You can't simply search our bags. You can't have us suspecting each other. It's against the rules and it's unethical that way."

Savage took a step towards the blonde girl and was about to retort when a firm grip on his left arm held him in place. His eyes looked down to see a slender hand holding him tightly, and looked back up only to meet cold but menacing green eyes glaring daggers into his own.

"You heard the girl, it's against the rules."

Weary ears registered the sound of more students getting off their seats as he tried to pay little mind to Haddock's low and cold tone from his last sentence. Savage then looked around to see five more students - three boys and two girls - standing up.

"Yeah, asshole!"

"What did ye say, Thorston?"

"He says you're a fucking asshole!"

Even after wrestling the grip off his arm, Savage found the auburn-haired Haddock challenging his authority, getting in his face at every chance he had.

"Ah will say this _one last time_, gimme ye bags."

He did not anticipate the reply from the blonde girl behind Haddock.

"No."

Slowly, every student in the class got off their seat in defiance of the man who was in charge. Savage looked around, nodding to himself as he clicked his tongue and was about to speak out when the bald student standing in front of him stared him down with a smug.

"Savage the Damaged, Ah suspect that ye dinnae 'ave any balls, and ye penis is tiny. Take yer fuarking pants off."

"WHAT DID YE SAY TAE ME?"

"PANTS OFF, YE LIL' DICK!"

"GIMME YE BAGS! _RIGHT NOW_!"

At the back of the class, the stout boy in jet black hair picked his bag from the ground and tossed it at the prefect as hard as he could.

"Here's my Thor-damned bag, you piece of yak-dung!"

Savage closed his eyes and lifted his hands to cover his face from being hit by the flying projectile, but soon was met with a barrage of bags hitting his body from every direction as the students threw their bags, heavy and light alike at their 'intruder'.

The impacts had the man stumbling backwards, and Savage was lucky enough to have steadied himself just before he could trip and fall. His eyes burnt with rage as he pointed his finger at the rebelling students just before he stormed out of the class and marched off in the direction of a particular office.

oOo

"Stop looking at me."

Annoyance mixed with embarrassment laced Astrid Hofferson's tongue as she tried covering her face with her hoodie in an attempt to hide her face from green eyes that were looking at her.

The bald man seated at the teacher's table lifted his head at the sound and adjusted his glasses before he placed his forefinger on his mouth as he looked at Astrid.

Flinching at the sight of being signalled to remain silent, the blonde girl put down her hoodie and turned her head to the side, her eyes glaring daggers while meeting seemingly innocent green ones and a lopsided smile.

"What?" Hiccup kept his tone at a whisper. The lopsided sided smile turned into a serious expression, but Astrid was certain she could still see a glint of cheekiness in his eyes. "You 'heard' Mr Sven. No talking."

"I'm just telling you to stop looking at me."

"Who says I'm looking at you? I'm looking at the wall. Detention is boring."

"Can't you look at another wall?"

"Hofferson, I like that wall. Especially the way they painted it. Its' very yellow."

Blue eyes rolled in frustration as Astrid let out a huff and sunk in her seat dejectedly. The whole class fiasco led to her being one of the few students to be sent to the principal's office, and despite her strong protest on Savage's conduct and offer that the 'students can still pay up the class funds again', Mr Treach had sent the few students to detention for 'poor behavior'.

_"Lassie, Ah understand where yer point is comin' frae. Ah truly dae. But th' system has tae be respected. Ye lot disrespected it."_

Remembering Alvin Treach's words from an hour ago just frustrated Astrid further. This was her first detention in her entire school life, and she could only imagine how disappointed her parents must be when they discover their precious daughter had decided to go against the rules.

_"Naw, Ah will let this incident slide if ye agree tae nawt report Savage and gae fae detention. I'll take care of Savage. Don't ye worry."_

"You know," the sound of a nasal voice whispering broke her trance and she turned around to see Hiccup smiling at her, lips thin and right dimple showing. "That moment when you stood up to Savage, that was when you truly amazed me."

Astrid couldn't help it. She didn't know why, but she smiled back upon hearing Hiccup's words.

"Thanks."

"Ugh, give it a rest you two. Hiccup, stop disturbing my babe before I kick your ass."

"Shut up, Snotlout."

"Hey, that's my line, cuz."

Soon another girl's voice joined in. "Can you two just knock it off? At least Fishlegs is doing his homework."

"Yeah," Tuffnut added. "Snotty, leave those two alone. They probably need a room. Oh wait, we're already in the room. Ruffnut, how about we clear the room and let these two love birds have some time alone?"

"Oh, goodie," Tuffnut's identical twin sister begin rubbing her palms together, sinister smiles forming on both her and her brother's face. "Let's give him the Sven Special."

Hiccup snapped his head at the twins, his face a mix of horror and surprise. "Are you two serious? Now? No. No. Don't tell me. I don't know you two."

Five minutes later, Astrid and Hiccup watched as the male twin got off his seat, informed the bald teacher at the front that he had a 'nature's emergency', and was nonchalantly allowed to the washroom. Blue eyes widened in surprise at Sven's uncaring nature at monitoring detention.

Another five minutes passed, the silence in the classroom broke with Mr Sven's phone ringing. Just as Astrid watched the teacher picking up his phone, she was nudged at the side. Immediately she turned around to see Hiccup covering his ears with both his hands.

"Yeah, you may wanna close your ears for this part."

A confused Astrid was about to ask Hiccup more questions but stopped herself when she noticed the seriousness in the auburn-haired boy's emerald eyes. Instead, she did as she was advised. But even covering her ears didn't prepare her for the intensity and volume of the shout that followed.

"MY BLACK SHEEP! MY BLACK SHEEP HAS GOTTEN AWAY!"

Astrid felt her eardrums ringing from Mr-'Silent'-Sven's shouting, and she watched as he got off his seat and bolted for the door. And as he fell backwards landing on the ground butt first. In a matter of seconds, the alarms began going off and water began showering from the water sprinklers.

Amidst the chaos of Mr Sven's yelling, the ringing fire alarm and the water soaking her, Astrid felt a firm grip on her arm.

"C'mon, Ast!"

She raised her head to see Hiccup smiling at her, his left hand holding her arm. Her eyes caught glimpse of the others already running towards the door, using their bags as cover from the sprinkling water. Instinctively, she got up and followed his lead as the both of them ran out of the room and made a beeline towards the main doors, eager to get away from school for the day.

* * *

_Next time on Crushing on You: "I'll be really happy."_


	10. Chapter 9: Graduated

Chapter 9: Graduated

_Hiccup_

"Three."

"Two!"

"ONE!"

With that, the Form Fivers – now high school graduates – who were standing in the middle of the school football field threw our mortarboards into the air as we all cheered "HAPPY GRADUATION!" at the top of our lungs. As gravity began to pull the boards back to the ground, I turned my head around to see Tuffnut groaning that he was 'hurt' after his own square academic cap decided to hit him on his head. Then Snotlout decided to make things more interesting.

"OH, I'M HURT! I'M VERY MUCH HURT!"

Ruffnut began chasing down her twin brother's assailant while Tuffnut held his crotch with his hands as he rolled on the ground, disregarding the fact that grass was starting to stick to his graduation dress.

_Well, to be honest, Snotlout did hit Tuff in the balls. So…_

Alvin and the teachers watched with wide eyes at the antics of Snotlout, though most of the students had just decided to ignore him cheering "Snotlout" twice, followed by "Oy!" three times.

I noticed tears were forming around Fishlegs' eyes. At first, I thought he was crying after the reality that we all may never see each other again for a long time dawned on him, but then I realized he was just laughing so hard at Ruffnut trying to give my stout cousin a taste of his own medicine.

"Hiccup?"

I turned my head around to see the person calling my name, and immediately I found myself looking at a blonde girl smiling at me.

"Hey, Astrid." I couldn't help it. Seeing her just made me smile. "What can I do for this year's Valedictorian? Perhaps you need a feel of this raw Viking-ness."

"Real funny, Haddock." Azure eyes rolled at the sight of my fishbone of a right arm being flexed, but Astrid kept smiling. Playfully. It must be the heat from the sun, but my eyes noticed her cheeks were slightly red. "Wanna take a picture together?"

"But I don't have a camera."

"Don't worry you two, I brought mine."

Astrid's face lit up and thanked Heather before she stood beside me to take the photo. When we heard the clicking sound from the shutter, Tuffnut decided to voice out his suggestion.

"You know, you two should get a photo of both of you kissing. Like French kissing kinda kiss. That would be epic!"

Astrid wrinkled her nose and knitted her eyebrows at the suggestion, but it dissolved into a laugh almost immediately when I started making over-the-top smooching noises while pressing my lips together.

"Seriously, H, _bleurgh._"

Snotlout announced with his tongue sticking out as he walked towards us. Soon Fishlegs, Eret and Tuffnut joined us, eagerly wanting to snap a group picture together.

"Snotlout, where's Ruffnut?"

Heather looked around, and we all bar one jet black-haired short male did the same while Tuffnut began questioning whether he had a sister or it was just his own imagination. Snot just pinched his nose bridge as he listened to the male twin blabbering on before speaking.

"She went to remove the gown. Said she wants to snap photos without looking like she's wrapped in a worn-out blanket. Why can't she just take off the gown here and just take the photos? I mean we're can just remove the gown and toss it aside. We are already wearing our handsomest suits underneath."

Astrid and Heather rolled their eyes then excused themselves to go back into the school building to use the toilet. I had to put my hand over Snot's mouth from saying anything else, and smiled when Tuffnut decided that was the moment to exact revenge on my cousin with his elbow.

oOo

_Normal_

"You're very lucky, do you know that?"

Blue eyes turned around to see a girl looking intensely into the ladies' washroom mirror as she combed her raven black hair. Eyebrows were raised in question of the statement-cum-question that her closest friend said to her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Heather means you landed the jackpot in high school, Astrid. Especially with all the boys pining for you during the last three years. The rest of us girls have no chance. Zilch."

Astrid rolled her eyes at the remark which came from the cubicle behind them as she straightened her simple blue dress that matched with her eyes.

"Oh come on, Ruff. Heather has admirers too. Don't tell me you didn't notice how Fishlegs asked to be friends with her on theFaceBook."

The doors to the cubicles opened, and both Astrid and Heather turned their heads to see what Ruffnut was wearing. The long-faced blonde noticed the confused looks on their faces.

"What? I'm more of a leather jacket and combat boots girl. Dresses are too girly anyway."

Blue eyes met green as Astrid and Heather started smiling, remembering amongst the three, Ruffnut wasn't one to play dress up. Astrid decided that it was graduation the right time to dress up nicely, but that wasn't what Ruffnut thought. She never cared about the occasion.

Seeing that all of them were ready, the three girls walked out of the ladies' room and made their way back to the field, with Ruffnut deciding to go ahead to make sure her brother does not wreck graduation havoc alone.

"You're right, Heather. I am lucky."

Heather turned her head around to look at Astrid. Her closest friend had a small smile forming on her face.

"So, have you decided?"

This time it was Astrid's turn to look at Heather, a confused look forming on the blonde's face as she noticed her friend raising her eyebrow while wearing a cheeky smirk. "What?"

"Decided on who you want to be with, of course."

Hearing that, Astrid snapped her head forward, but she couldn't hide the smile forming on her face. Heather noticed that the smile was wider than the previous one, and decided to dig deeper.

"C'mon, Ast. Are you gonna hide it even from me?"

It took Astrid ten seconds, then she leaned towards Heather to whisper in her ear.

oOo

Ruffnut, having decided to turn back and surprised her two friends from the back instead of her mutton-head brother, saw Astrid leaning towards Heather and decided to listen in. She sneaked up towards them from the back, and her ears could only catch Astrid whispering "…I'll be very happy.".

"Happy, huh?"

Ruffnut asked suggestively, startling the two girls in front of her, especially Astrid, whose eyes were wide open with shock.

"RUFFNUT!"

Seeing the reaction from the blonde girl, the Thorston twin raised her hands in defence.

"Hey, I just heard that you'll be happy. Like very, very happy. That's all, I swear."

Azure eyes narrowed as Astrid studied the friend standing in front of her. Swearing is one of the few things that Ruff took seriously, so she decided to let it slide.

"Don't scare me like that next time. Or you're getting a black eye for that."

"No promises, blondie. Now, you wanna keep the others waiting longer for the photos or get it done so we can party later?"

* * *

_Next Time on Crushing on You: "Don't you think he's very immature?"_


	11. Chapter 10: What Now?

Chapter 10: What Now?

_Normal_

"They really are childish, aren't they?"

The boy with a bulk build asked the girl sitting next to him. Both of them decided to sit atop a rock to dry themselves after getting soaked from playing in the small waves that washed ashore from time to time.

The rays radiating from the sun reflected on the waters, allowing the sea to emit a glow and glitter like a diamond reflecting light. The seafoam hit the beach as the wave brought them back and forth in a slow and tranquil rhythm.

Eret let out a sigh of relieve as he waited for the girl's reply. They got their diplomas two weeks ago, and had just completed the National College Entry Exams. The time felt right for them to take a break before college life began. Personally, Eret felt it was one of the chances he gets to talk to Astrid without the group throwing their weight around, and he wanted to grab it.

The girl sitting on the rock hugged her legs as she watched her group of friends playing in the water, paying no heed to the waves that hit them. The boys had decided to pretend as seals and were honking at the two girls playing with them to toss the beach ball at them. She smiled at the antics of her friends, oblivious to the eyes of other beachgoers who were silently judging the teens.

"Yeah, they really are," She finally mustered a reply, and rested her chin on her left hand.

"I take it you don't like childish guys?"

"Yeah."

"Who do you think is the most childish, then?"

Her smile grew wider as she continued watching one particular boy whose auburn hair had begun growing back getting on both his feet and sprayed water from his mouth at a raven-haired girl who was trying her best to run away from her 'assailant'.

"Hiccup."

Said teen had found himself tackled into the water by a much shorter but bulkier boy, yelling "Snotlout Snotlout Oy Oy Oy!" as he resurfaced from the water. Azure eyes watched Hiccup getting up the water and used both his hands to playfully push his tackler's head back into the water, cheering "Snotknuckles Snotknuckles Oy Oy Oy!" triumphantly. The scene had Astrid stifling a laugh and missed out the question Eret had asked her.

Before she could ask Eret to repeat himself, the both of them found themselves sprayed with sea water. A loud hysterical laugh broke out and Astrid opened her eyes to see green eyes light up with joy.

"HADDOCK!"

Hearing Astrid calling him out, Hiccup arched his back as he cackled with glee after spitting at both his friends who he felt were sitting down for too long, his finger point at Astrid as he watched the disbelieve in the girl's blue eyes.

_Her eyes are blue just like the sea, so beau-_

"You are so childish! You better watch out!"

His train of thought was cut short by an annoyed Astrid who couldn't hold back her smile, and he turned around as fast he could to dart back into the depths of the water as the moment he saw Astrid jumping off the rock into the water to chase him down.

Eret watched as his lanky friend battled against the current which threatened to wash him ashore or closer to Astrid who was now steps behind the boy. Frantically, Hiccup removed his green t-shirt and dove in the shallow waters, trying to swim away but to no avail. Astrid started laughing maniacally as she used splashes of water as a means to 'attack' Hiccup, who in turn feigned screaming from the ongoing 'assaults'.

Sighing to himself, the boy of Sami-Inuit descent finally decided to join his friends again and got to his feet before jumping back into the water.

oOo

"So, what are your plans from here on?"

Feet dangling from the wall they had sat themselves on just behind the wave breakers as he and his friends air-dried themselves, Eret kept his eyes onto the sky while he asked the group doing the same and enjoying the view of nature before them.

It was around five in the afternoon, but the summer sun still shone brightly. Despite that, the sea breeze gave the group of teens a cooling sensation as the wind came in touch with their skins. The group decided to sit for a few more hours and enjoy each other's company whilst waiting to see the sunset.

"Animals are always interesting to me. So, becoming a vet sounds nice to me."

"That's nice, Fish."

Heather responded to Fishleg's words, earning red cheeks from him in response as he smiled.

"Indeed, my dear sister and have been thinking of this for a very long time, and we've decided to continue to wreak havoc the only way Thorstons know. Perhaps overseas."

Snotlout snapped his head to face Tuffnut who was seated next to him and nudged him with his elbow. "Studying abroad is expensive."

Tuffnut started shoving Snotlout in return, telling him to shove it and the both of them began tussling with each other as the stout teen with jet black hair elbowed the male twin. Eventually, Ruffnut tried to break the fight apart but fell backwards as soon as Tuffnut accidentally knocked her off balance. Eret chuckled as he listened to Ruffnut screaming "It is on!" as she got back up to join the tussle.

"Study abroad? I want to do the same. Maybe I'll apply for a scholarship. And pursue an MBA."

"Well, I wanna keep on playing rugby. One day I'll join the Rugby Premiership after conquering the ARC."

Snotlout spoke out after he wrangled himself free off the now tangled up Thorston twins. Astrid then turned her head to look at Heather, seated between her and Fishlegs.

"What about you, Heather?"

Heather smiled to herself as she looked at Astrid for a while and then turned her head back to the sea.

"Helping people out sounds great. I can work with helping animals, too."

Again, Fishlegs' face was flushed red as Heather smiled at the bulky blonde before she rested her head on Astrid's shoulder, and asked Astrid.

"I haven't really given it much thought, to be honest."

Hiccup turned his head to look at the blonde girl next to him. For as long as he knew her, Hiccup always thought Astrid had set goals in her life. After all, she was the most matured within the group, and also the best student. His train of thought was cut off by Ruffnut who had realized one last member hadn't answer Eret's question

"What about you, Hiccup?"

Green eyes focused on the horizon, unaware that blue ones were staring dreamily at him. Hiccup took a few seconds to give the question deep thought before eventually answering.

"I want to be an amazing person."

Confused was the word to describe Eret's reaction, as were the others when they heard Hiccup's answer, but he was the first to respond with a weak chuckle.

"Might as well you don't answer, H."

"How do you want to be amazing?"

Fishlegs asked with full curiosity, eager to know the meaning behind his auburn-haired friend's reply.

"I want this world to be better because of me, no matter how much difference I can make."

With that, he turned his head slowly, and emerald eyes met azure before Astrid self-consciously broke eye contact to watch the horizon. Despite the eye contact lasting for around three seconds, time felt as if it slowed down for the two teens, who decided it was much better having each other as company.

Seeing his friend turning her head back to the front, Hiccup did the same, but one line kept repeating itself at the back of his head as the corners of his lips curved upwards slightly.

_And you are the only person who can make my world better._

* * *

_Next time on Crushing on You: "Can you promise me something."_


End file.
